NEW YORK (TheStreet) — Here’s an interesting factoid about the days of search terms pre-Internet. Do you know the famous person who garnered the most press mentions in the 20th century? Here’s a hint. It’s not Jesus Christ, or Ghandi, or Kim Kardashian (we’ll tell you at the end of the article if your guess is right, but we’re sure Kim is off and running in the 21st century).
It’s besides the point for the purposes of this article, which is about what the most-searched financial terms on Yahoo! in 2011 tell us about the state of the U.S. economy.
We have migrated to a journalism world that caters to the Kardashian set, a world of search terms on Yahoo! and Google and search engine optimization. Indeed, for those of us like the editorial staff of TheStreet, who follow the stock market on a daily basis, there’s much to be gleamed by seeing what stocks people search for, and stepping back and taking a look at what really matters to the average American.
And when it comes to the top 10 most-searched financial terms on Yahoo!, what matters isn’t stocks, per se, or bonds, or John Corzine — or the rest of the 1% — or the fate of the euro, or the Chinese property bubble, or the Empire State Manufacturing Index.
The Top 10 most-searched financial terms on Yahoo! in 2011 tell us what the average American really cares about when it comes to the economy.
It’s pretty simple, actually, and it’s not surprising: The basic nuts and bolts of just scraping by in a still-damaged society clawing its way back from a colossal financial crisis are what overload Yahoo! servers when Americans go looking for financial information.
For those looking past being nickeled-and-dimed and to investments, the word “stock” doesn’t make the top 10. It’s the get-rich alternatives to stocks, like precious metals contracts and crude oil that shine in financial search traffic.
In fact, there is only one term among the top 10 most-searched financial terms on Yahoo! that even relates to stocks: Dow Jones Index.
Here are the rest.
Gold prices
FAFSA
Gas prices
Oil prices
Coupons
Silver prices
Sallie Mae
Unemployment
Mortgage Rates
So let’s break down the most-searched financial terms list into their state-of-the-economy subgroups:
speculative bet futures contracts — oil (when it’s not being searched by those afraid of what they might pay at the pump), gold and silver (when these precious metals are not being searched by those looking to pawn the family jewels to make a mortgage payment)
Student loans — FAFSA, Sallie Mae (with no jobs to have, heading back to school has become the de facto way forward — until, of course, the would-be student realizes the inverse relationship between student loan debt and job opportunity: as one goes higher, the other doesn’t necessarily follow)
The U.S. housing market — mortgage rates (it’s either a great time to buy(!) or refinance, and it’s all because things remain so bad)
Unemployment — jobs (or lack thereof)
“It’s come to this…” — coupons (it really has come to this. Forget about the Groupon(GRPN_) IPO, what Americans are really looking for is actual coupons!)
Speculative bubbles, housing, jobs, student loan debt, coupons … you get the drift as the economy remains adrift. That Dow Jones Index sure looks lonely among the most-searched financial terms of 2011.
One could make the case that as long as a market-watcher knows the price of oil, gold and silver, and the current state of the U.S. mortgage and employment markets, the investor knows all he needs to know about whether to invest in stocks, and that’s why these terms make the top of the list.
Link to Article – The Street
Part 2 of the 2012 series.
